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Protests Across Middle East and Asia Against Danish Quran Burning

Afghans shout slogans as they burn a flag of Sweden during a protest against the burning of the Koran by Swedish-Danish far-right politician Rasmus Paludan, after Friday prayers in Jalalabad on January 27, 2023.Afghans shout slogans as they burn a flag of Sweden during a protest against the burning of the Koran by Swedish-Danish far-right politician Rasmus Paludan, after Friday prayers in Jalalabad on January 27, 2023. - Sputnik International, 1920, 27.01.2023InternationalIndiaAfricaJames TweedieDays after the leader of the Netherlands’ anti-Islam party Pegida tore pages from the Quran outside the Dutch parliament, his Danish counterpart Rasmus Paludan has vowed to burn a copy of the Islamic holy book at the Turkish embassy in Stockholm every Friday until Ankara allows Sweden to join NATO.Protests have been held in several majority-Muslim nations against the desecration of Islamic holy book the Quran by Danish and Dutch politicians.Protesters marched in Pakistan, Iraq and Lebanon on Friday after Danish anti-Islam politician Rasmus Paludan burnt a copy of the Quran outside the Turkish embassy in the Swedish capital Stockholm on Saturday January 21.Police in the Pakistani capital Islamabad stopped some protesters who were trying to reach the Swedish and Danish embassies.Around 200 protesters in Lebanon’s capital Beirut burnt Swedish and Dutch flags outside the Mohammed Al-Amin mosque in the central Martyrs Square.Protests against Paludan’s desecration of the holy text have already been held in Turkey.Days before Paludan’s book-burning, Dutch anti-Islam party Pegida leader Edwin Wagensveld tore pages from a copy of the Quran outside the Netherlands’ States General parliament in The Hague and stamped on them. In Iraq, political leader and Shiite clergyman Muqtada al-Sadr led hundreds of protesters outside a Baghdad mosque, where accused western nations of hypocrisy for allowing those actions in the name of free speech while banning attacks on other symbols as hate crimes.Sadr asked why “doesn’t the burning of the gays’ rainbow flag represent freedom of expression,” and warned that the sacrilege against the Quran “will bring divine anger.”Paludan, who holds dual citizenship of Denmark and Neighbouring Sweden, has a reputation as a serial agent provocateur. He has staged the same stunt several times in the past in areas of the Danish capital Copenhagen with large Muslim populations. His Stram Kurs (Hard Line) party also campaigned for election on the promised to sterilise disabled people.The anti-Muslim leader has now vowed to repeat his stunt every Friday until Turkey agrees not to veto Sweden’s application to join US-dominated military alliance NATO.Quran - Sputnik International, 1920, 27.01.2023WorldHard Line Party Head Paludan Pledges to Burn Qurans ‘Every Friday’ Until Sweden Is Admitted to NATO06:16 GMTTurkey has already broken off talks with Sweden and fellow Scandinavian NATO applicant Finland over the incident, as well as Sweden’s refusal to extradite 130 Turkish-born residents wanted by Ankara.Turkey says the wanted individuals are members of the sepraratist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) or the international organisation of US-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gulen, accused of fomenting the attempted coup d’etat against president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.The PKK is banned as a terrorist group in Turkey and by the European Union — of which Sweden and Finland are members — as well as former EU member the UK.

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